Q&A: Gary Oldman on Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

If you took a straw poll of Hollywood actors and asked what living actor they admire most, Gary Oldman might well top the list. Ever since he portrayed punk rocker Sid Vicious in 1986’s Sid and Nancy, Oldman has conquered role after role with aplomb—from Beethoven to Dracula, from Commissioner Gordon to Sirius Black, and all without getting nominated for an Oscar. That may change in 2012, thanks to his masterful work as cerebral super-spy George Smiley in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, which opens tomorrow. Not only is Smiley, John le Carré’s ennui-stricken Cold Warrior, another iconic character, but he’s also already been famously portrayed by the renowned English actor Alec Guinness.

We sat down with Oldman in Beverly Hills to talk about his work in this film and others—highlights from our chat:

John Lopez: Was it nerve-racking stepping into a role made iconic by Guinness?

Gary Oldman: I accepted this with trepidation because, you know, the ghost of Guinness was looming large. He had been the face of Smiley all of those years. But at the end of the day, it’s a dragon in your head that you have to slay, isn’t it really?

Did you go back and look at the old BBC version?

I didn’t. I didn’t want to be contaminated by it. There’s always the risk that you re-watch it and find yourself doing an impersonation. There will be things that you arrive at that he did because you’re navigating the same terrain, but mine’s, I think, a little more virile. Guinness was nearly 70 when he played it. But you try to come to it really with a freshness—also, you’re going in with the blessing of John le Carré.

Let him fight Guinness’s ghost for you.

It’s difficult when you’ve got something like the TV series, and people who revere the books—for them it’s like Sherlock Holmes, like he was alive. It’s almost sacrilege that you’re attempting it. It was wonderful that John came forward and said, “I am the author of this book, and I give this my blessing.” He held away the wolves.

You must know how to deal with the wolves—you’ve done a lot of these iconic characters from famous franchises, like Batman.

But you felt with Batman the fans had felt betrayed because it was going off the rails and Chris really resuscitated it. So the fans were in that respect behind us. But yeah, I’ve done a few—Batman, and you’ve got it with Harry Potter as well.

Does it change the job, playing characters with all those preconceptions behind them?

No, you can’t fill your head with that, otherwise you wouldn’t get out of the starting gate. It would paralyze you. You just hope that the people will go and receive it.

You certainly have never seemed paralyzed. I think of all those crazy early roles—Sid Vicious, the corrupt cop in The Professional, Drexl Spivey in True Romance. In a way, you’ve come 180 with a restrained, quiet hero like Smiley.

Whether you like it or not, you become older and a bit of an elder statesmen. You know you’re getting old when Tom Hardy says, “I used to watch you as a kid.” But he meant it in a nice way! A whole new generation coming up flatteringly look up to you—but you’re just looking for something else; you just slow down. I remember being on the set of The Dark Knight with Heath, and we all knew he was going to be dazzling—you could see it. I remember thinking one day, Rather you than me.

Really?

Yeah, that whole bouncing off the walls—you think, Thank God I’ve had my share of it. Smiley’s more like jazz. With a Drexl, you’ve got to burn from the first bar; it’s rock ’n’ roll and you’re coming into people that are already comfortable with one another. Smiley, I was there every day; there’s continuity to it. With the roles that are more emotionally physical, they might be great characters and great scenes to play, but I would always have a cloud over my day. You get to the set, you do makeup, then you’re in the trailer waiting for that knock on the door: “They’re ready for you on set,” and you get there and you hope that the reserve is there, whether you need rage or tears or whatever it is.

It must be exhausting having to light dynamite take after take.

That’s a brilliant way to describe it. Smiley’s challenging, but I didn’t have to do all the pyrotechnics and jumping around. He was very good for my blood pressure.

How does it feel to be that elder statesman—to have people start looking back at your “body of work”?

Obviously, you talk about it when people ask, but I don’t really look at old work. Occasionally there’s a role you played, you didn’t really give it much of a second thought, and then someone says it meant something to them. “I saw you in that and that’s when I wanted to become an actor!” I’m always flattered and mystified. You look behind you and there’s all this other great talent coming up. When people like Ryan [Gosling] or Tom [Hardy] or Michael Fassbender say, “You’re why I’m here”—I’m amazed because I look at them and the work they’re doing and how special it is.

Does it ever make you feel nostalgic for when you were making your name?

No. You see it happening for them and it’s fun: “Yeah, I know what that’s like. I’ve been there.” Ryan will call me and we’ll meet for coffee—not that he needs any advice. He’ll ask, “How do you handle that?” You say what you can. I just worked with Shia [LaBeouf] in Wettest County in two scenes—blink and you’ll miss me—but he was impressive. He’s going to develop and move away from Transformers.